One Year Ago
by Shado Librarian
Summary: Lois Lane remembers Superman - but no one else does when she shows up at the Planet after a six month absence she doesn't recall.
1. Chapter 1

Written for the 'extra Lois' challenge at lcficmbs dot com

* * *

It was one year ago today… one year ago, although she hadn't known it at the time, that her life veered off into the Twilight Zone.

Lois's memories of that day were still vague and she suspected she would never fully remember what really happened to her in the moments before she barged into the Daily Planet bullpen to face down her erstwhile partner, Clark Kent, for taking advantage of her drugged state.

She remembered, as if from a dream, getting sprayed with the vile perfume during the fashion show at the Planet and chasing after Clark. She remembered making love to him. She also remembered waking up horrified at what had happened – and the fact that Clark had been willing to make love to her even though she had obviously not been in her right mind at the time.

She had been furious and hadn't given Clark time to say or do anything to mollify her. Lois remembered that part quite clearly. She remembered going to her apartment to change clothes and then… then there was a blank as though the time had simply disappeared and she found herself inside the bullpen ready to rip Clark's heart out.

She found him in Perry White's office that morning. Obviously he'd been telling Perry all about how she'd come on to him. In her fury she missed the signs that something was wrong – more wrong than just Clark talking about her behind her back – until it was too late.

"I will not work with him," she announced, shaking her finger at Clark.

Clark gave her a blank look. "I'm sorry, but have we met?"

"That is one sick joke, mister. So, you have your fun and now you pretend you don't remember my name?" she hissed.

"Mister White, I swear…" he began, turning to the editor.

"Don't, Clark," she ordered. "I don't know what the devil you were thinking that you could get away with… with what you did last night…"

"Lady, I don't know who you are, and we certainly didn't spend any time together last night, no matter what you claim," Clark stated.

"Right… like I never met you, or your parents in Smallville, and I don't know that you've traveled around the world and was taught to dance by a Nigerian princess or that the first article you showed Perry was about the mating habits of the knob-tailed gecko?"

"Lois…" Perry started, "if you say this hound dog's done you wrong… well, you know I won't stand for any of that." Lois watched in satisfaction as Perry turned to Clark. Then the satisfaction turned to confusion as Perry said, "Sorry, Kent, but I've no place here for someone who would do that to a lady, even if I had a job open."

_A job open? What the hell's going on here?_

Clark looked resigned as Perry handed him a pile of clippings and what Lois now recognized as a résumé.

_A résumé?_

"I'm sorry to have taken your time, Mister White," Clark said as he walked out of the office. He didn't look back.

"Perry, what's going on here?" Lois demanded.

"You tell me," Perry said. He looked like he couldn't decide to be happy or upset. "Lois, where have you been for the past six months? We thought you were dead. And now you show up and accuse…"

"But I've been right…" she began. Then she noticed the calendar on his desk. The date was June 10th. But she would have sworn it was October…

"Lois?" Perry's voice intruded. "Are you okay?"

"Is that the date?"

"Yes, hon."

She felt faint. She barely noticed as Perry guided her to a chair and waved away the curious onlookers outside his office.

"You want to tell me what's going on?" Perry said gently, as though he was afraid of spooking her.

"I have no idea," she admitted. "The last thing I remember is being doused with some foul chemical during that stupid photo shoot and then going over to Clark's place… only the date's wrong and he didn't know me and you said I was dead…"

"You don't remember going to Pointe-Noire last December on that arms-smuggling story?" Perry asked.

Lois shook her head.

"You have no idea where you've been for the past six months?"

"I know where I've been," she stated. "I've been right here, working with…"

"No, Lois, you haven't," Perry told her. "Last December you went to the Congo to chase down a story. Just after New Years we got word that you'd gone missing. They assumed you'd met with foul play."

Lois shook her head. She remembered her trip to Pointe Noire. She had followed Marj and Marvin Turner to the Congo and found the warehouse they'd been using to house the arms being sold to the local warlords. Only the warehouse had been destroyed moments after she left it. She had taken the hint and come back to Metropolis with what evidence she had, including documentation on the complicity of the 'local authorities' in the Turners' not-so-little enterprise.

"Lois, where are you staying?" Perry asked.

"At my…" she began. His quizzical expression made her stop. "My apartment's gone, isn't it?"

He nodded.

"Do I still have a job?"

He smiled at that. "Yes, hon, you do," he told her. "I didn't have the heart to tell personnel we didn't think you were coming back."

-o-o-o-

As far as the world was concerned, Lois Lane had been missing since New Years. Clark Kent did not have a job at the Daily Planet and had never been assigned as her partner, even though Lois _knew_ they had worked together for five months.

And there were other things that were 'off'. The death of Beatrice Shaw during the razing of the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre felt wrong. The destruction of the Messenger shuttle and the Prometheus space station felt horrifically wrong.

Superman had _saved_ the space station – only Superman hadn't shown up this time. Superman hadn't shown up anywhere. Lois knew she didn't dare look for him – with six months supposedly missing from her life, remembering things that hadn't happened wasn't going to make Perry any happier about her refusal to seek professional help with her 'memory loss'. Looking for a 'super-man' would be the last straw for her career as an investigative journalist.

Perry White didn't run an alien-hunting tabloid.

The one oddly bright point in all the wrongness was that Lex Luthor had actually agreed to Lois's request for an interview following her successful investigation of the Toaster gang's predations.

"Mister Luthor, I know you're hesitant to give interviews..." she had said as he was leaving a fund-raiser she was covering as a favor to Perry – Cat Grant was out with the flu.

"I hope you can understand, a man in my position. I wouldn't want to be misinterpreted, and I have had one or two bad experiences with the media," he said suavely.

"But not with me," she assured him.

Luthor looked into her eyes and smiled. "Why don't we make it dinner?"

Luthor's limo picked her up at her apartment on Clinton. To her surprise, Luthor wasn't in the vehicle. The chauffeur explained in heavily accented English that Mister Luthor rarely ate out in Metropolis. They would dine at the penthouse.

Luthor was waiting for her in his penthouse. It was a richly elegant set of rooms – the lair of someone wealthy who saw no need to hide the fact.

His study was a prime example – paneled in dark wood and furnished in dark leather. The walls were lined with lit cases filled with ceremonial weapons from all eras and nations. From her research she knew that his collection was priceless. Luthor stopped and pointed out an ancient sword.

"The prize of my collection…" he began.

"Macedonian?"

He seemed surprised that she recognized the age of the weapon. She wasn't about to tell him that she 'remembered' Luthor's conversation with Clark.

"It belonged to Alexander the Great," Luthor continued. "A brilliant tactician. His strategy was simple: always control the high ground. It was with this sword that he..."

"...defeated Darius III, and was proclaimed King of Asia," Lois stated.

"You surprise me, Ms. Lane. I'm not often surprised," Luthor said.

"I try to do my homework, especially when interviewing someone as influential as you are," Lois said, appealing to his vanity.

Luthor's man servant appeared, interrupting whatever Luthor had planned to say. Luthor ushered her into the dining room. Like the rest of the penthouse, the dining room was richly appointed – just bordering on ostentatious. But like the rest of the Luthor's quarters, it seemed a waste. No one outside of his few intimates ever saw these rooms.

Lois settled down to business. "Both your father and mother died when you were fourteen, correct?"

He seemed amused. "Why don't I have my office send you a biography?"

"Because I don't want the standard line; I want to know the real Lex Luthor," she explained. "We all know the rags to riches story. But I want to know what makes you tick. What you want, what you strive for..."

He seemed to actually take a moment to consider his answer. "Pleasure. The pursuit of pleasure… Does that surprise you?"

"I would have guessed you'd say 'power,'" she admitted.

"Power is a means, not an end."

"But, achieving power must give you pleasure."

His smile actually reached his eyes this time. "Very good."

"You took over your first big company at age twenty-one, but there were rumors that the buy-out was coerced," she said, getting back to business.

Luthor stiffened and Lois knew she had struck a nerve. "Is it true the Board of Directors were paid substantial, unreported fees?"

He reached over and took her hand. It was an obvious ploy to distract her. "Was the food not to your liking?"

She looked down at her plate and realized she hadn't done more than taste her food. It looked delicious but she really had no appetite for it. "Sometimes when I'm working..."

"All work and no play... your credo, Lois Lane?" he asked, still holding onto her hand.

She tried to pull her hand away. "I don't think..."

"Can't we just enjoy the evening? Enjoy each other? Let down your hair, Lois. Loosen the tie…" he said. He turned her hand over and uncurled her fingers. "You're so tense. Let the defenses down."

She finally got her hand away from him. "Lex, I think you have the wrong idea about this dinner."

He smiled disarmingly – at least Lois assumed it was meant to be disarming but her stomach was churning. "I hope you don't think we're here merely because you are a beautiful young woman. That wouldn't speak well for either of us... You wanted an interview. A scoop. I understand that. But, quid pro quo, let me tell you what _I_ want." He leaned closer. "My talent in life is not making money or juggling companies. It's character assessment. I sense things about you. Possibilities. Potentials. You have the intelligence, spirit, and vision to transcend the mundane..."

He was smoothly seductive and Lois couldn't remember the last time an attractive man had told her she was beautiful – aside from Clark during their one night of insanity. It would be so easy to fall for Luthor. So easy and so utterly insane.

She made a show of checking the time. "Lex, I have a story to write tonight. I think we'd better be going."

"No dessert?" he asked. She knew he wasn't referring to pie or cake or anything else that came out of the kitchen.

"No thanks. I never have dessert," she told him. She resisted the urge to rub her upset belly.

"Really? You don't know what you're missing." Luthor's expression was coyly sly, as though he fully expected her to change her mind and have the dessert he was thinking of.

Lois's gut finally had enough. She looked around in alarm to find the door to the rest room as what little she had eaten threatened to reappear.

"Lois, do you need a physician?" Luthor asked as she made it to the powder room and emptied her stomach. He actually sounded alarmed.

"No," she managed to say.

"Was there something wrong with the meal? I'll..."

"No," she repeated. "The meal was fine. My stomach's been a little queasy the past few days. Nerves and too much coffee most likely," she assured him with a lie. She had a suspicion about what was wrong with her and it wasn't the food.

"I'll have Asabi drive you home," he offered. The seductive silkiness was still there but Lois knew she'd blown it. There would be no second interview. Luthor was already mentally preparing himself for his next conquest.

Maybe it was for the best, Lois told herself as Luthor's man drove her home. She 'remembered' Lex flying her off to Italy, France, and England for dinner and shows. She remembered being flattered by his attention. She also remembered Clark's unexplained distrust of the man.

What had Clark known that he'd been unwilling to share with her?


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning brought confirmation of Lois's worst fear. She wasn't just pregnant – she was _very_ pregnant. She dropped the little indicator into the trash and bowed her head.

'How could this happen?' a little voice inside her asked. 'And what do I do now?'

She debated with herself about telling Perry. The last woman in the newsroom who found herself pregnant had also found herself banned from covering any stories that might have a negative impact on her or her baby. Lois wasn't sure if Perry's ban had been legal, but legal or not, Lois knew Perry would do the same to her.

Good bye going undercover on assignment.

Good bye Pulitzer. Good bye, Merriweather; good bye, Kerth. As much as she wanted to believe that female journalists were on a level playing field with men, she knew better. The old boys' club might award a Kerth or Merriweather to a woman but they wouldn't dream of giving one to an unwed mother who had gotten pregnant during a one night stand.

And Lois Lane with child was simply going to confirm the worst suspicions of the bullpen sleaze bags – that she, like Cat Grant, had slept her way to the top stories and maybe even Perry's good graces.

The obvious solution was to terminate. A baby wasn't in her current life plan and she was certainly young enough and healthy enough to have a baby once she found that special someone. But she found herself shying away from that 'solution'.

It wasn't that she had any strong religious notions concerning when a 'fetus' became a 'person' – her father was a doctor and she was well aware both the biological facts and of his opinions about politicians and religiosos interfering in what should be a private matter between a woman and her physician. 'If you're against abortion then don't have one,' was one of her father's mantras.

It was one of the few things she agreed with him about.

As a journalist she had covered the bombing of women's clinics and the murders of doctors who provided abortion services to poor women. The arguments of the perpetrators sounded specious – They all claim to be killing killers, but Lois couldn't understand how people who claimed to love life could justify denying poor women the medical care they needed to have healthy children, Did any of the self-proclaimed 'pro-life' groups have any provision for caring for the unwanted or severely damaged babies they claimed to want to save?

She knew the answer and it sickened her. As far as she was concerned, attacks on women's clinics were nothing more misogynistic terrorism, no better than the imams that attacked women for wanting more than being be confined to their homes or veiled.

But now she was facing her own need and she found she didn't want to take that logical step.

She debated on whether or not to try to contact Clark. She had no idea where he was but she assumed he had found a newspaper job somewhere in the country. It wouldn't be that hard to track him down. But then, the man who had left Perry's office that day had claimed not to know her and she suspected he had been telling the truth. Something utterly weird had happened to her and now she was the only one who remembered Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet just as she was the only one who remembered a world that had Superman in it.

_Superman_… Was he out there somewhere waiting for a chance to show himself? Did he even exist in this world that was at once so similar to the one she remembered and yet so different?

That was a question she had no answer to.

The next few days kept her busy enough that she didn't have a lot of time to worry about Clark Kent, or how she was going to tell Perry and her parents about her 'condition'. Her father had managed to avoid having charges brought against him for his part in Max Menken's criminal doings. Lois hadn't believed her father was entirely innocent the first time she'd covered the boxing cyborg scandal with Clark. She was doubly certain this time that he had been well aware that the fighters he'd 'altered' had used their enhanced strength to win matches they never could have won otherwise.

Tommy Garrison plea bargained his way out of a possible death sentence for killing his opponent in the ring at the Ultimate Street Fight – even with Sam Lane's cyborg enhancements, the poor fighter Menken had set against him hadn't had a chance against Garrison's speed and strength and Superman hadn't been around to stop the fight.

And Luthor? He claimed that Menken pulled a gun on him when he tried to stop the fight promoter from escaping when the police came to stop the match and arrest Menken. But Lois wasn't so sure that was what actually happened. She remembered Luthor shooting Menken before. She remembered Menken taking her hostage and Luthor coming to her rescue. This time she'd been smart enough to avoid being caught by Menken but Luthor had shown up in the alley anyway. There had been no reason for Luthor to have been there unless… Research like her father's cost money, a lot of money. Menken had to have gotten his funds from somewhere. The official line was that he had been involved in organized crime but that overlooked the next two obvious question – _who_ actually fronted the money and _why_?

Her subsequent research shed little light on those questions. Her sources admitted hearing rumors that the crime boss known only as 'the Boss' may have been involved, but there had also been rumors that he'd been behind the Toasters' arson spree in the Hob's Bay area. In fact it seemed that any major crime in Metropolis, from muggings to art heists, was being laid at the mysterious Boss's feet.

It was too much for one man to be controlling – wasn't it? But then people like Luthor and Bruce Wayne wielded that much power through what they controlled – companies, money, opinion. Was it much so much of a stretch to believe that a powerful man obsessed with power might take more than a few steps into the unsavory and unscrupulous side of things?

She was still worrying the matter over in her mind at morning staff meeting the following Monday. It had been a quiet weekend. Too quiet.

"Anything from the Governor's office?" Perry asked Eduardo.

Eduardo shrugged apologetically. "We can expect a fiscal turnaround sometime next year."

"Now there's news," Perry groused before turning to Lois. "What about Washington?"

"President's on vacation... again."

"Nice work if you can get it," Perry said with a grimace. "Please. An idea, any idea."

"Those kids are still missing from the Beckworth School," Jimmy volunteered. There was something about Beckworth School the tickled Lois's memory.

"We've been using that as filler the past three days," Perry stated, interrupting Lois's train of thought. "Nothing's changed. Come on, Jimmy, where's your nose for news?"

"'Man of La Mancha' opens at the Orpheum Friday with an all female cast," Cat offered.

"That's a travesty," Lois protested. "'Man of La Mancha' is my all time favorite musical."

"It is?" Cat asked in mock surprise.

Perry grimaced. "There are twelve million people in the city of Metropolis. There must be something significant happening **somewhere**."

As he spoke the television in the corner of the conference room flickered on by itself to show a school-age boy in a suit and tie sitting at a desk. It looked like a parody of a TV news anchor set.

"We interrupt your regular programming to bring you this special report," the boy announced solemnly. A trumpet fan fare sounded. Then, "Smart Kids still at large! Authorities search for clues to kids' whereabouts. Meanwhile, the kids say: leave us alone. Don't look for us. Don't try to get us back... or else… We rejoin our show in progress."

Only what came on the screen wasn't what should have been on the schedule. Lois was certain that a vintage Porky Pig cartoon wasn't on channel Six's morning lineup. The cartoon was short and was soon replaced by two children, a boy and a girl, seated in directors' chairs.

"What I like best about this film is the metaphorical content," the girl began. "Porky, of course, is our 'everyman' character, and his antagonist is 'death.' Dudley?"

"I agree, Aymee. Who amongst us has not felt the pangs of mortality?" the boy said. "Yet, we persevere." He stuck out his fist with his thumb up like a movie reviewer. "I give this film my highest recommendation."

The girl, Aymee, mirrored his movement. "I second that. And that about wraps it up. Join us next time when we review that classic of post-modernist angst, 'Bongo's Bad Day.' Ciao." The screen went blank as the television turned itself off.

"It's them," Lois murmured to herself.

"It's who, hon?" Perry asked.

"The missing kids from the Beckworth School," Lois explained.

"She's right," Jimmy said. He opened the folder he'd been carrying and pulled out four faxed photos of kids. He stabbed at the photos with his finger. "Phillip Manning, Aymee Valdes, Dudley Nickolas. Twelve, eleven, and eleven. They're three of the four who escaped from the Beckworth School last week." Jimmy grinned. "Someone say something about a nose for news?"

Perry ignored the dig. "What have we got here? A prank? A scam?"

"Well, obviously someone's behind it," Cat stated. "That stuff didn't come from a couple of grade-schoolers. And what the heck _is_ post-modernist angst?"

"Isn't Beckworth supposed to be for gifted and talented children that the regular foster care system can't handle?" Lois asked.

No one bothered to answer her question, but Lois knew she was right. "So, why did they run away, and why did they feel they needed to make this big announcement?"

"Okay, it's your baby," Perry announced. "Get me some answers."

-o-o-o-

"Tell me about the television stunt," Lois demanded. Jimmy settled onto the corner of her desk.

"If it hadn't happened, I'd say it was impossible," Jimmy said. "Every television in the greater metro and every channel. Now the channels… well, if a strong enough signal could be broadcast on every broadcast frequency, that would explain the channels, but then the signal had to be fed to all the cable providers, too."

"That sounds hard, but not impossible," Lois pointed out.

"But turning on everything single television set in the city?" Jimmy responded. "That's just not possible."

"But it happened," Lois reminded him.

"Yeah. It happened."

Lois took Jimmy with her to the Beckworth School. She remembered the 'other' time she went to the Beckworth School - with Clark. This time she'd done her homework and although she was still of the opinion that the kids the school served were brats, she also knew that the four missing kids had gone missing for a good reason. At least the four kids thought it was a good reason.

"So, what's the plan?" Jimmy asked as the cab dropped them off a block from the school.

"What makes you think I have a plan?"

"You spent all yesterday and this morning checking out the missing kids and the staff at the school," Jimmy reminded her. "So, obviously, you think there's something going on there."

"Well, we both know what they did with the TVs was impossible," Lois said. "So, what would make kids capable of doing that want to run away and warn everybody to stay away from them?"

The tour of the school was much as Lois remembered from her first tour. The building was a little shabby but the children seemed healthy.

"Our funding comes from a variety of sources. Subsidies from the State Special Education Fund, private donations…" Mrs. Powell, the school's director explained. "We take whatever we can get."

"All your students live here full time?" Lois asked.

"That's correct."

"Any of 'em ever get adopted?" Jimmy asked.

"At their ages, the chances are poor," Mrs. Powell explained. "This is their home. The escape has been very unsettling for all of us."

"You don't believe they were kidnapped or coerced to leave?" Lois asked.

"The police keep asking that," Mrs. Powell said. "It would explain a lot."

"Is there anything else that links these particular children? They seemed... unusual," Lois said.

"We've been through their files with a fine tooth comb. Nothing. I mean, for what it's worth, they're very bright kids."

"Bright enough to pull off that stunt yesterday?" Lois asked.

"I wouldn't have thought so," Mrs. Powell admitted. "But Doctor Carlton must have seen something the rest of us didn't since he started working with them about six months ago."

"So, Doctor Carlton's been working here for the past year and he's taken a special interest in these particular kids?" Lois asked.

"He's been with us a year," Mrs. Powel said. "Wonderful man. He donates his time to the school free of charge. He also has a degree in Clinical Psychology. He's helped enormously with our testing and counseling programs."

Lois knew all that from her research, but her inquiries had left more questions than answers – Alfred Carlton was a neurologist with a degree in clinical psychology who was donating his time to the school. But nothing she found about him gave any indication of why he had suddenly decided to give his services to the school for free. From all accounts he was brilliant but also self-centered. Magnanimity wasn't his style.

"He must be busy now, the kids being upset about their missing classmates and all," Jimmy said.

Mrs. Powell frowned, looking over at the locked door to the infirmary. "As a matter of fact, no. He wanted things to calm down a bit before he began therapy. Frankly, waiting seemed contra-indicated to me, but... he's the expert."

"If you'll come to my office, I'll get you those files," Powell said, heading down the hall. Jimmy fell in beside her. Lois waited at the school bulletin board, pretending to read the notices. She had spotted a little girl watching her from around a door and Lois was fairly certain what would happen next.

She wasn't disappointed. A beanbag hit her on the rump. The little girl was standing behind her.

"I'm Inez. What's your name?"

"Lois. Lois Lane." Lois remembered losing her temper the previous time. This time would be different.

"Aymee's my big sister. Aymee Valdes. She escaped," Inez said seriously. "You have to help her."

"Help her how?"

"She'll come back for me, I know she will. But then _he'll_ catch her."

"Doctor Carlton?"

Inez's eyes widened.

"Did Aymee and the others run away because Doctor Carlton was going to hurt them?" Lois asked.

Inez paused then nodded.

"Why didn't they tell Mrs. Powell?"

"Nobody believes kids," Inez said.

"I believe you," Lois assured her. "I guess you don't have a way to get in touch with her?"

Inez shook her head. "It's safer that way."

"But not for you," Lois noted.

-o-o-o-

Mrs. Powell was unable to shed any more light on the reasons why the children had elected to leave. Lois had the sense that Mrs. Powell would have been a competent administrator if she wasn't so in awe of Carlton's brilliance, letting his opinions override her own good sense. On the way out of the building Lois spotted the shredded files in the trash and grabbed several handfuls.

"Why would someone be shredding files in a school?" Jimmy wondered aloud.

"Maybe someone who has something to hide?" Lois suggested. "Maybe these will tell us something. And maybe we need check out Carlton's office later tonight."

-o-o-o-

After several hours, Lois and Jimmy finally had enough of the shredded papers put back together to actually examine them. Luckily the shedder Carlton had used wasn't a very good one – a lot of the shredded pieces hadn't separated properly.

"Mentamide 5," Lois commented to herself. It was just like before.

"Never heard of it," Jimmy said. "It's here in a couple places. Maybe some sort of medication?"

"In that case, what's it for and why would Carlton be shredding the records on it?" Lois asked.

Jimmy shrugged.

"And didn't it seem strange to you that the school doctor would _delay _counseling for the kids left behind?" Lois went on.

"Maybe he's busy?" Jimmy suggested.

"Doing what?" Lois asked. "He's not at the school and he's not in his office downtown."

"Maybe the kids grabbed him," Jimmy suggested facetiously.

"Or maybe whoever was funding this Mentamide stuff? Having the kids run away can't be making 'whoever' very happy."

"What makes you think there's somebody else involved?" Jimmy asked.

"If this was a drug trial, then the drugs had to come from somewhere," Lois explained. "And new and experimental drugs aren't cheap. There's nothing in Carlton's background that indicates he'd be able to formulate a drug by himself. And I'm betting the kids know more than they should about it and that's why they ran."

"Well, those kids on TV seemed awfully smart," Jimmy said.

"Smart and, unless I miss my guess, in way over their heads."

-o-o-o-

There was a definite advantage to remembering events that hadn't happened yet, even if they did play out differently the second time around. The city was in an uproar over the ATMs being filled will play money and the water system contaminated with blue goo. They were childish pranks that hadn't been funny the first time.

But Lois and Jimmy were waiting outside the Beckworth School when Aymee Valdes started working on the security system on the exterior gate controller.

"You know there's a cop waiting for you just inside the gate, don't you?" Lois said softly. Aymee jumped and even through the camouflage makeup and the dim light, Lois could see that the girl had gone pale.

"Who are you?" Aymee asked, looking around.

Lois introduced herself and Jimmy. "We need to talk," she added, grabbing Aymee's arm. "About Mentamide and Doctor Carlton."

Jimmy led them to an all-night coffee shop he knew not far from the school.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Aymee insisted even before Lois had a chance to begin asking questions. But the girl accepted Jimmy's offer of a hot cocoa.

"Well, if you don't know anything, then Doctor Carlton obviously has your best interests in mind and you just ran away on a lark," Lois told her. "In that case, I'm wasting my time and I should just turn you over to Child Protective Services and they can return you to the school in the morning."

"No!" Aymee said sharply. She continued in a lower voice. "We… It wasn't a lark, but I can't tell you why."

"Then let me tell you what** I** know. Then you can fill in the blanks," Lois offered.

Aymee glowered at her. "You just want me to tell you where the other kids are because you're a reporter and you think we'd make a good story"

Lois managed a chuckle. "I'm not just a reporter. I'm an investigative journalist. I'm the one who pokes sticks into holes to see what bites. I turn over rocks to see what slithers out. I shine light into dark corners to find the rats that prefer to do their dirty work where nobody else can see them. And I suspect Doctor Carlton is one of those rats. Tell me I'm wrong."

Aymee stared into her cup.

"Doctor Carlton's been using you kids as guinea pigs in a drug trial," Lois continued. "Something called Mentamide 5. Only it didn't go quite the way he was expecting. You guys got smart. Really really smart. Smarter than him. Smart enough to know he was up to no good. How am I doing so far?"

Aymee didn't answer.

"They will find the other kids," Lois stated.

"No they won't," Aymee said, finally breaking her silence. "And pretty soon we'll have everything we need and we'll be able to go somewhere where he can't find us."

"There's no place you can go, not without help," Lois said.

"We don't need help from any stupid grownups," Aymee grumbled.

"Well, it was a stupid grownup that kept you from getting nabbed at the front gate," Lois reminded the girl. "So here's the deal, you help us get in and get the goods on Carlton and we help you get Inez out of there."

-o-o-o-

Getting in and out of the building hadn't been difficult – Aymee knew the particulars of the alarm system and Jimmy made quick work of the locks on Carlton's office door and the various cabinets.

Aymee watched him in rapt silence. "He's good," she murmured when the door was open.

"The skills of a misspent youth," Jimmy explained with a grin. Then his expression became more serious. "I don't recommend it. Juvvie is not a fun place."

Watching Aymee out of the corner of her eye, Lois went through the file cabinets looking for the medical files belonging to the four escaped kids. There was no sign of them, even though every other child in the school seemed to have a full dossier. Lois couldn't even find their immunization records and those were required to be on file by state law.

Jimmy let out a low whistle as he inspected a tray of microscope slides. "I think we got something." He pulled out one slide and held it under his flashlight. Lois looked at it over his shoulder. There was a pink smear across the glass and 'Mentamide 5' was written in grease pencil across one end of the slide.

"Bingo."

"They moved Inez," Aymee announced. Lois hadn't realized she had left them. "I can't get to her."

"We'll get her out of here, don't worry," Lois promised even though she had no idea how she was going to do it.

* * *

**Smart Kids** was written by Dan Levine


	3. Chapter 3

Lois finally decided to simply take Aymee home with her and worry about Inez later. It was unlikely anyone would link Lois to the Smart Kids and she did remember managing to get temporary custody of Aymee _before_.

Carlton finally showed up at his office and Lois was waiting for him. She didn't expect much from him, just some additional background on the kids that escaped, and Carlton hadn't provided much. He did confirm that he believed the kids had acted without the help of adults.

And when she asked him about Mentamide 5, he actually paled while denying he'd ever heard of it.

By the time Lois arrived back in the newsroom the Smart Kids were on TV again. Philip was on camera. "This just in: water supply returns to normal! No ill effects from the Smart Kids' mysterious gelatin stunt. How did they do it? You'll never know. Meanwhile, the kids say again, 'Leave us alone. It's a big city. Lots more things could go wrong with it…' The Reign of the Smart Kids continues."

Just as before the television turned off, apparently by itself.

Lois just shook her head. She had been a bright child – brighter than nearly all the adults she had known – but she would never have dared gloat about her pranks the way Philip was doing.

She spotted Jimmy coming out of the elevator. "Okay, what have you got on Mentamide 5?"

He checked his notes. "It's an organic stew: amino acids, herbs, neurotransmitters, you name it. It's so complex even Star Labs' computers couldn't analyze it completely. They _were_ able to produce a synthetic facsimile."

"And?"

"They're testing the synthetic. Nothing conclusive yet, but it _seems_ to stimulate cerebral hyper-activity in lab rats."

"They got smarter," Lois translated for herself.

"A lot smarter," Jimmy agreed.

Lois picked up her phone and dialed the number of the Beckworth School. It was time to face down Carlton. The notes taken from his trash and the sample from his office might not have been sufficient evidence of wrong doing in a court of law, but it might be enough to scare him into quitting his experiments on defenseless kids.

She spoke to Mrs. Powell. Carlton was gone and Powell had no idea where. Lois's gut clenched. It was too coincidental that Carlton should decide to take a leave of absence and not leave a forwarding address after her interview with him. Had the person with the money ordered him to disappear? A suspicious person would say that an innocent person wouldn't run. A very suspicious person might suppose that Carlton was a complication that Money Man couldn't afford and the good doctor was going to show up dead.

"I have a very bad feeling about this," Lois said aloud. "Get back to Star Labs," she ordered Jimmy. "Call me at home if they uncover anything else."

-o-o-o-

Aymee was sitting in the dark when Lois walked into her apartment. Lois flipped on the light and saw her stereo receiver in disassembled pieces on the floor. A bubble of anger started to rise – then she realized that Aymee's cheeks were wet with tears and she was sobbing silently.

The bubble of anger burst into concern. "Aymee, what's wrong?"

"I'm not so smart any more. I took it apart to make it work better like I did with your TV, but then I couldn't put it back together… I think I broke it."

"That old thing? It doesn't matter," Lois assured her. "I gave some people I know a sample of Mentamide 5 so they can tell us what it really did to you kids."

"It made us smarter," Aymee argued weakly, wiping the tears from her face.

"It made you something you're not ready to be," Lois said. "We start out as kids so we can _learn_ to be adults. When I was a kid I thought all adults were incredibly stupid. I figured it had something to do with your body getting bigger, but your brain staying the same size. Like dinosaurs… It's not that simple. It's never that simple."

Aymee studied Lois's face. "Do you want to know how the smart stuff works?"

_A breakthrough_. "Only if you're ready to tell me."

"At first you don't notice. Then, things get easier. You understand everything, and you remember everything. But, if you stop taking it, you get dumb again... like me now."

"You're not dumb," Lois protested.

"Compared to what I was I am," Aymee explained. "It's hard going back and forth from smart to dumb. That's why we escaped. And also to stop him from doing any more experiments."

"Why didn't you tell someone what was going on?"

"Would _you_ have believed a bunch of 'problem' kids?" Aymee asked. "Besides, when we're smart we can handle anything."

"If only that were true," Lois commented. "Being smart isn't keeping Philip and Dudley, or you, from making really dumb decisions, like that stunt with the water, or the ATMs, or the TVs."

"But if people see what we can do, they'll leave us alone," Aymee protested.

"No they won't," Lois said. "All Philip and Dudley are doing is proving that they're problem kids. Worse than that, they've proven that they're dangerous problem kids. Just because nobody was hurt by the gel stuff doesn't mean somebody won't get hurt the next time they pull one of their stunts. And Aymee, if somebody does get hurt, it's likely to be one of you kids."

"I told you, when we're smart, we can handle anything."

"Aymee, I don't care how smart you are, you're still a kid and so are they," Lois said. "You can't handle everything. Heck, even grownups can't. If they could, you and Inez wouldn't have been put in Beckworth."

"What do you know about that?"

"I know your mom wasn't very old when she had you," Lois told her. "And when Inez was born and your dad left, she had more than she could handle."

Aymee snorted. "He wasn't my dad. I'm not convinced he was Inez's father either."

_None of that had been in the file Mrs. Powell had given Lois_. "Want to tell me about it?" Lois asked as gently as she knew how.

"My mom is younger that you are by a couple years. Do the math," Aymee began. "When I was born she had some 'issues' and was sent to a hospital. I ended up being raised by my grandma. Mom was told she shouldn't have anymore kids but I guess she wasn't as careful as she should have been and Inez was born and Mom ended up back in the hospital and Grandma was stuck with two kids. Then Grandma died and Mom had to take care of both of us, only her boy friend…"

"Her boyfriend didn't want two little kids around?"

Aymee nodded. "I ran away and took Inez with me. The social services people took care of us, put us in foster care but that didn't work very well. So we ended up in Beckworth. I don't know if Mom knows where we are or if she even cares."

Lois opened her mouth to defend Aymee's mother then decided against it. The story Aymee was telling wasn't the one Lois had gleaned from the school files. But it made more sense than _Mrs_. Valdes simply handing custody of her children over to the state because she couldn't handle it. Lots of single parents had problems and _they_ didn't give up their kids. They dealt with the problems as best they could and way more often than not, the kids turned out okay.

Lois couldn't imagine simply giving up her children to strangers. She knew, intellectually, that babies were given up for adoption all the time but she couldn't see herself doing it. But then, she was a grown woman with a decent income, family – as dysfunctional as it was – and friends. She wasn't a scared kid suddenly thrust into an adulthood she wasn't ready for.

Time to get the subject back on track. "Aymee, do the other kids have enough smart stuff to last them?"

"They're probably running out."

"What will they do?"

Aymee was obviously conflicted and Lois could sympathize. "I can't say," the girl said after a moment.

"Can you at least tell me where they are?"

Aymee shook her head. "If they get caught, no more smart kids."

"Would that be so bad?"

Aymee didn't answer.

-o-o-o-

The next day began as a nightmare. The Daily Planet headline said it all: "Smart Kids Nab Luthor." Beneath that, "Daring Penthouse Raid" and "Ransom Demands To Be Announced."

The announcement of Luthor's kidnapping had come straight from the Smart Kids. According to their 'press release', Phillip, Dudley, and Karen had managed to bypass all of the security in the LexCorp Tower, immobilized Luthor and took him out of the tower with no one being the wiser.

"Why Lex Luthor?" Jimmy asked.

Perry shrugged. "If they wanted someone prominent, who better? What do you think they'll ask for?"

"Could be anything," Lois said. "We're talking about kids, remember?"

Once again the television turned on, apparently by itself. The screen showed Phillip sitting at the 'newscaster' desk.

"If Metropolis wants Lex Luthor back in one piece, listen carefully. First, we want Aymee Valdes and her sister Inez released from custody. Second, we want promises _in writing_ there will be no more attempts to find or capture us. Third, we want our own island. A nice one. With palm trees. Fourth, one hun... one _thousand_ pounds of gooey bears. You have twenty-four hours to comply with these demands."

As before, the television turned off.

Perry shook his head. "What, no military jet? And what's that about having Aymee Valdes released from custody?" He turned to stare at Lois. "Is there something I should know?"

"Aymee is staying with a friend," Lois told him. "But, she did confirm my suspicion that Carlton was using her and the other kids as experimental subjects in a drug trial that no conscientious person would have authorized. The drug is what made them so smart, but it's only temporary."

Perry snorted. "Kidnapping Lex Luthor isn't exactly a smart thing."

"Unless he's involved in some way we don't know about," Lois said. "_Someone_ was funding Carlton's experiments and he chose those four kids for a reason."

"And what was that?" Perry prodded.

Lois shook her head. She didn't want to tell him what she had managed to badger out of Mrs. Powell that morning. After hearing Aymee's story about how she and her sister ended up at Beckworth's, Lois had dug deeper. Aymee's story was true, as far as she had gone, but what she hadn't told Lois was that Aymee had repeatedly run away from home and had been returned to her mother despite indications that the home environment was dangerous for her. It was only after she took Inez with her that Child Protective Services took action to protect her and her sister from the mother's abusive boyfriend.

The stories of the other three kids had similar themes. Karen had been abandoned by her parents and then taken from her foster home after an investigation showed that the foster parents had been neglecting and abusing the kids in their care. Karen had been the oldest. The youngest had been six months old. Dudley's story was similar. He had either run away or been abandoned by his parents – the authorities hadn't determined which, but no missing child report had been filed on him and he'd run away from the foster homes he'd been placed in.

Phillip's story was probably the most frightening. He hadn't run away from home, but he was the only survivor of an arson fire that killed the rest of his family. _His_ foster family had turned him over to Beckworth because they were afraid of him. They refused to tell Lois why.

"Let's just say that with the history of these four, none of their families were going come after Carlton if he did anything," Lois said.

"That bad?"

Lois nodded.

"Lois, you're not going to believe this..." Jimmy announced as he ran up to Lois.

His clothes were rumpled and he looked like he hadn't slept at all. He probably hadn't. Lois waited fro him to continue.

"Well, remember this is from the synthetic they made, but... the stuff does boost intelligence... for a while," Jimmy said. "But once enough residue has built up in your system, though, there's a kind of an overload." He lowered his voice as if to emphasis the seriousness of what he had discovered.

"Go on."

"Conscious cerebral activity drops to almost nothing," Jimmy said. "It burns out your brain. They also think they identified the source."

"LexLabs?" Lois asked.

"How did you…?"

"The kids kidnapped Lex Luthor."

-o-o-o-

It took all of Lois's persuasive abilities to convince Aymee that the other kids were in danger but finally Aymee caved. Which was why Lois, Jimmy, and Aymee were walking into a warehouse at Metropolis Harbor.

"Incoming," a childish voice yelled. Lois assumed it was Karen. Then Dudley stepped out of the shadows holding what looked like a Super Soaker.

"Hold it right there," the boy ordered.

Aymee walked up to him and pushed the nozzle aside. "Cut it out. They're with me, okay?"

"I have my orders," Dudley protested as Aymee reached around and pulled out the drain plug from his 'ammunition' tank. Green goo ran out onto the floor.

Aymee beckoned Lois and Jimmy to follow her through the door into the room beyond.

Lois looked around. The room was a kid's dream: toys – electronic and otherwise – games, big screen TV, videos, all thrown together in an unruly mishmash.

"Where's Lex Luthor?" Lois asked.

"Not so fast, lady," Dudley said as Lois headed for the far door.

"Guys, they're here to help us," Aymee told them. "They found out the smart stuff turns to poison if you keep using it. Really, it's the truth."

It was obvious that Dudley and Karen didn't want to believe her.

"It's a trick," Karen announced.

"It's not a trick," Lois protested. "You've got to stop taking Mentamide 5 right now."

"Then we won't be smart anymore," Karen protested.

"You were always smart. You'll just be normal. We know about Dr. Carlton and what he did. He's through," Lois promised but she could tell they weren't convinced.

"Listen up," Aymee ordered. "You know me. I wouldn't steer you wrong. These are friends of mine. I think we should believe them."

After a long moment Dudley and Karen both unhooked the harnesses that held their goo weapons.

"Where's Lex Luthor?" Lois asked.

"Phillip's got him. In the spy center. Down the hallway," Dudley told her.

Lois turned to Jimmy. "I'll be right back."

Before, it had been Clark who had walked into the spy center to rescue Luthor. Now it was her turn.

Phillip was watching an array of monitors that showed scenes from all over the city. Behind him, Luthor was tied to a chair surrounded by mechanical arms that held hypodermic needles filled with something red and frothy-looking.

Phillip turned as Lois entered the room. His eyes seemed swollen and unnaturally bright, as if he was feverish. Luthor was very still but otherwise seemed unharmed as he watched Phillip.

"Miss Lane. Guess you won game number one," Phillip said.

"What game, Phillip?"

"Hide and seek," the boy said.

Lois stepped closer.

"Careful," he warned. "There's always game number two."

"And what's that?"

Phillip opened his fist to show her a small wireless transmitter. He nodded toward Luthor. "Pin the tail on the donkey. Mr. Luthor here could end up with the I.Q. of a radish."

"Phillip, are you all right? Did you take more smart stuff?" Lois asked.

He grinned at her. "Yeah. The new improved version. My mind is so big..."

"You took Mentamide 6?" Luthor asked. He sounded surprised.

Phillip nodded.

"But you're still..."

"Smart? Oh, yes. There was a flaw in the formula, but I fixed it," Phillip told him.

Lois noted the way Luthor's eyes lit up at Phillip's statement. And he'd known about the new 'improved' version. Luthor was surprised that Phillip was still functioning. _Luthor knew about Mentamide 5_.

"The other kids want to go back to the way things were. How about you?" Lois asked.

"I can't go back," Phillip said.

"You can. It'll wear off. If you don't take any more, you'll be normal again," Lois assured him.

"Normal is boring," Phillip told her. "Normal is stupid."

Lois had to concede that he had a point. "Maybe so, but is getting smart by using a drug, being dependent on people like Carlton, any better?"

"But if the drug has improved him, made him special, what's the harm of that?" Luthor asked Lois. He turned his attention back to Phillip. "You've become a very special person, Phillip. Unique. You deserve special treatment. I can arrange that, son. Anything you want." He paused as if evaluating his audience. "I had no idea Dr. Carlton was using his research grant at LexLabs to experiment on you kids. I'm shocked, of course, but I take full responsibility. Let me make it up to you and the others."

"So you admit that LexLabs was behind Carlton?" Lois asked. "But if you didn't know what he was up to, how did you know about Mentamide 6?" She turned to Phillip. "As long as you want stay the way you are, you'll be controlled by the people who have the drug. And they only want to use you for their own selfish ends. Is that what you want?"

"She wants to take it all away from you," Luthor protested. "I want to give you the world."

"It's the other way around, Phillip and I think you know it," Lois said. "Can you remember what it was like before? Before Carlton started you on Mentimide? Can you remember just being a kid?"

"I'm still a kid," Phillip muttered.

"Are you?" Lois asked. "Do you feel like a kid? Like you used to? Is anything as good as it was?"

Phillip looked like might actually be listening to her.

"Why deny yourself the excitement, the reward, of learning as you grow?" she went on.

Luthor interrupted. "Because Phillip doesn't need to get stupid again just to work his way back to intelligence. Whatever he wants is in his grasp now: power, privilege, wealth…"

"But would he enjoy them?" Lois asked.

"Who wouldn't?"

"Someone who had gone beyond humanity into becoming... something else," Lois said.

"Something more," Luthor insisted.

Lois kept watching Phillip. "Something we were never meant to be."

"Nonsense," Luthor said.

"What do you feel, Phillip?" Lois asked. "How wonderful or terrible is it really? You're the only one who knows. You're the only one who can decide."

Luthor snorted. Lois was amazed at how cool he was keeping considering he was tied to a chair with hypodermics pointed at him. "That I agree with," he said. "Come on, Phillip. Choose. Back to kiddihood, or onward to greatness."

"Are you smart enough to know a lie when you hear one?" Lois asked.

"Would you go back to being a kid if you could?" Phillip asked her.

She considered her answer, placing a protective hand over her belly. "No. I've already been one," she said finally. "I've moved on. Someday you will, too. But not now. When it's time."

"It's not easy being a kid," Phillip said.

"Who ever told you it was?" Lois asked.

Phillip stared at the needles that were just inches from Luthor's skin. For the first time, the billionaire actually seemed nervous. A little smile flickered across Phillip's face – a cold smile that reminded Lois of Luthor.

"Don't do anything you'll regret, Phillip," Luthor said. There was barely controlled desperation in his voice.

"Phillip..." Lois warned.

Phillip's smile grew wider as he hit the switch on the transmitter. Luthor jerked against his bindings and Lois held her breath. The arms didn't move but the plungers on the hypodermics pushed down, spraying pink goo over Luthor's body.

Phillip dipped a finger into the goo then put his finger into his mouth. "Cherry."

If looks could kill, Luthor's expression would have incinerated both of them.

-o-o-o-

"So you think Luthor was involved in this Mentamide stuff all along?" Perry asked after reading what Lois had submitted.

"I know what I saw and what he said," Lois told him. "But he assured the DA that all of Carlton's notes and samples would be turned over to Star Labs for analysis and it looks like the DA is just happy it's over. Prosecuting three pre-teens for kidnapping and extortion was not going to look good on his record, and with Carlton's body being found in his apartment with a convenient suicide note taking full responsibility for the kids' actions…"

"Luthor even agreed to pay off the charges the kids put on his credit card," Jimmy added.

"Not exactly a real issue considering Luthor owns the bank the card was drawn on," Lois reminded them. "I'm sure he'll figure out a way to make it up." She made a mental note to move her accounts to the credit union her uncle Mike had recommended.

"On a good note, except for Phillip, all the kids are in back at Beckworth and reports are that they're settling in nicely. No long term ill effects. Phillip is at Star Labs for the time being. He's agreed to help them out while his mind is still expanded. At least Luthor doesn't have his hands on him."

Perry's eyebrows drew together in worry. "Lois, what have you got against Luthor?"

She shrugged. "Nothing concrete," she admitted. She wasn't surprised the Perry had picked up on her antipathy towards the billionaire. Perry didn't get to his position by knowing how to yodel. She reminded herself to be more circumspect about her suspicions.

"There are a lot of odd coincidences involving him," Lois said aloud. "Each time he has a perfectly reasonable explanation, but when you put it all together, you have to wonder."

"Lois, just be careful," Perry warned. "Luthor didn't get to be where he is by playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules, no matter what his bios say."

"I'll be careful," she promised. _I have to be. It's not just me anymore_.

-o-o-o-

Two weeks until Christmas and Perry still hadn't said he'd noticed her growing bump, although other people in the newsroom had made snide remarks. Only Cat seemed to actually consider that might really have happened. "If you need to talk, go shopping, find somebody to break the guy's knees…" Cat had offered.

Lois had chuckled. "No, that's okay. I think I can handle that part myself."

"Well, just remember, you're not the first woman who ever got into this situation," Cat said. Then she lowered her voice. "Although I am a little surprised you chose to go through with it. I know I wouldn't."

"It just didn't feel right," Lois admitted. Lois couldn't quite pinpoint when she had made the decision to continue the pregnancy. While helping Aymee and the other kids, probably. At least she felt she would do a better job of being a parent than those kids' moms or her own parents, for that matter. It would be hard, but she'd faced hard challenges before.

She turned her attention back to her current research.

LexCorp's new nuclear power plant had hit yet another snag on getting approved to go to full power – not only were there more questions about the environmental impact statement LexCorp had provided the EPA, but now there were questions about the concrete used in constructing the containment vessel.

It looked like all the millions that Luthor had sunk into his state-of-the-art flagship power plant would end up in mothballs due to an unscrupulous, or just stupid, contractor. Lois wondered how soon before that contractor's body would be fished out of Hobb's Bay. People who crossed Luthor tended to end up that way.

"Lois!" Perry's yell intruded on her ruminations. "Fire at the Clinton Street Women's Center."

Lois's gut clenched. She grabbed her bag and headed out, hoping her gut reaction was an over reaction. Hoping that the horror of two years before wasn't repeating itself.


	4. Chapter 4

My muse finally came back from vacation VBG.

* * *

The fire department was still working on the fire when she arrived. It looked like they were having trouble putting it out. The clinic was in an historic brick store front that had the interior completely updated. It had a state-of-the-art fire-suppression system but that obviously had not been sufficient. It wasn't an ordinary fire then – there were accelerants involved which meant it was arson.

Lois could only hope that the patients and staff made it out safely.

The clinic was staffed by Metropolis General Hospital from various female-oriented departments – OB/Gyn, breast health, others. The clinic boasted a state-of-the-art birthing suite, breast cancer out-patient treatment center, pre-natal care and education, even a well-baby center.

Unfortunately, what everyone who didn't use the clinic seemed to focus on were the free contraceptives and the fact that the clinic also performed abortions.

A fire marshal drove up. Metropolis had more than 140 fire marshals and supervisors. Lois didn't know all of them on sight, but she knew this one – Amanda Brown, the marshal that had investigated the clinic bombings two years before. At least she was the lead investigator _before_.

Brown was heading for the fire chief. Lois took a deep breath and approached them.

"Did anyone make it out?" Lois asked after introducing herself.

The stricken look on the chief's face told more than he probably realized. It was Tuesday and Lois knew that Tuesday's were busy at the clinic – it was the day they offered free services for poor women with children. Chances were good that unless someone had called in a warning, the building had been packed with mothers and babies.

Brown pulled Lois back as the chief shouted into his microphone, warning his people that the front of the building was failing. The sound was horrific as the lintels above the wide storefront windows failed and the brick above came crashing down.

"Has anyone claimed responsibility yet?" Lois asked as soon as she could hear again. The fire still roared like an angry beast, spewing flame into the sky. Behind her an LNN news truck was set up and Linda Montoya was covering the story from the safety of distance.

"What makes you think this wasn't an accident?" Brown asked. "I mean, I expect there're plenty of things that can go boom in a hospital."

"And we both know better than that," Lois said. "Otherwise _you_ wouldn't already be here."

Brown beckoned her to move further away from the noise and the news van. "You can't quote me on this," she said, "but it all the earmarks of the Disciples of Light. And there's a rumor that they were behind that bomb the cops found right after Thanksgiving last year in Millennium Park."

That hadn't been Lois's story, but she knew about it. The FBI had gotten wind of a car bomb scheduled to go off during the tree lighting ceremony. Luckily for Metropolis the bomb was a dud – or at least that's what was announced. Lois's experience told her there was no doubt more than that but the FBI was being tight-lipped about it. Now she suspected she knew why – the Disciples of Light cultists were on the rampage again.

Oddly, she didn't remember a bomb going off at aclinic _before. _Had Superman stopped that bombing? Had he managed to neutralize the Disciples of Light? Or were things even more different than she had been observed over the past months?

-o-o-o-

"Jimmy, get me everything we have on the Disciples of Light," Lois ordered as soon as she walked into the bull pen.

Jimmy gave her a blank look.

"Disciples of Light… They were responsible for a series of abortion clinic bombings two years ago. Their leader was sentenced to life without parole," she explained.

Jimmy's expression cleared and he nodded, heading off to get what she'd asked for.

"That bunch of nut jobs is at it again?" Perry asked. Lois hadn't noticed he'd been standing in the door of his office.

"That's what it looks like."

"You know that Jacob Weber's conviction was over-turned on appeal, don't you?" Perry said. "It happened while you were missing."

"But…" Lois began. Then she stopped as she realized that once again she _remembered_ something that hadn't happened. She had covered Weber's appeal process _before. _Weber had claimed that he'd been hounded and framed by the 'pinko liberal media' working with the 'welfare state'. Luckily the appeals court hadn't bought into Weber's ravings. It also hadn't hurt that Tom Morrow, the attorney that had originally represented Weber, had come under investigation for jury tampering among other things and had been unable to represent Weber during the appeal process.

And Lois had been the one to start looking at Weber's attorney. She swore when she realized that _here_, Weber had no doubt gotten out because the appeals court judge had been suborned by Morrow.

"Hon, are you okay?" Perry asked.

"Yeah," Lois lied. "I just can't believe any judge would have let that psychopath out of prison. And now there're forty people dead, half of them babies because of that sicko."

"Lois, we're supposed to report the facts, not…"

"_Fact_, Perry, the same type of bomb that was used two years ago by Weber's 'followers' to bomb women's clinics was found in Millennium Park _and_ at the Clinton Street Women's Clinic. _Fact_, Weber's back in Metropolis conducting rallies and inviting all the wackos he can to join his sick cause. _Fact_, nearly everyone who died today was a racial minority even though the clinic is in a racially diverse part of town."

Perry's eyebrows were threatening to climb into his hairline. She took a deep breath to calm herself. "Fact, Perry, somebody murdered _my_ doctor. _I_ could have been in there."

"How much of this can we print?" he asked after a moment.

"My sources say all the signs are there, but they're both ongoing investigations. They can't state anything definitively except that there's a strong possibility it was arson."

"Okay, we'll go with just the facts on the Women's Clinic for now."

"Perry!" Lois protested. She knew the story was bigger than just the fire.

He held up his hand. "For now," he repeated, looking around the room for someone. He spotted them. "Jimmy, Eduardo, I need a twelve inch sidebar on the history of hate crimes in Metropolis. Concentrate on hate crimes against women, women's doctors, and women's clinics."

"Anti-abortion groups?" Eduard asked.

"Don't tar 'em all with the same brush," Perry warned. "Just the ones who seem to think that murder is the best way to get their point across."

"Disciples of Light?" Jimmy chimed in.

"Sounds like a good place to start," Perry agreed.

"Thanks, Perry," Lois said softly.

He nodded then peered at her more closely. "When were you planning to tell me you were in the family way?"

"How…?" Lois began.

"I didn't get to be a man in my position because I can yodel." He sighed. "Is the father that Kent fella' I sent packing?"

"Yes… no," she said, sounding as confused as she felt. "I remember meeting him and letting things get out of hand. I _remember_. But something happened. Something weird. He didn't remember me at all."

"Date rape gone bad?" Perry suggested.

Lois shook her head. "The man I knew would never have done that. And I know I didn't do it to _him_."

"Somebody out to get both of you?" Perry suggested.

"Nobody knew I was in town," Lois said. "And I doubt Clark had, has, an enemy in the world."

Perry nodded knowingly. "You know my door's always open, right?"

"Thanks, Chief," Lois said. "Now I have some rats to look into."

Perry's eyebrows climbed again.

"Somebody helped that sicko get out of prison," Lois explained. "I want to know who, and why."

-o-o-o-

Remembering facts from _before_ had advantages – Lois knew where to start looking for the information she needed on Weber's attorney and had a good start on the judge who had overturned Weber's conviction. Lois accepted – applauded in fact – the right of every person to a fair trail, the right to appeal that conviction. But Weber getting out on a technicality was just _wrong_.

"Morrow was a slick one," Judge Meredith Sachs admitted over coffee across the street from the New Troy Courthouse. Lois knew many people in law enforcement – she'd covered the crime beat long before becoming an investigative journalist. She knew many people in the various district attorneys' offices around the city and more than a few of the judges. Sachs was one who had always had time for reporters, especially female reporters who didn't misquote her.

"And I've no idea what Judge Wheaton was thinking when he agreed with Morrow that the original trial was tainted by press interference," Sachs added.

"Any possibility he was suborned?" Lois asked, keeping her voice low.

Sachs shrugged. "I doubt Morrow would have been able to do it. But Wheaton did retire suddenly no more than a month later. He claimed it was for health reasons. Of course, White's editorials didn't help."

Lois had to agree. She's read through the Planet's coverage of Weber's release and Perry had pulled no punches when writing about Judge Wheaton's miscarriage of justice in letting Weber out of prison. Who was there to give justice to the victims of Weber's crimes?

"If Morrow didn't have the means to turn Wheaton, who did?"

"Ask yourself who wins with Weber out on the street blowing up buildings, making people afraid to speak out against his extremism and his tactics?"

-o-o-o-

Judge Sachs had pointed Lois in the direction of ADA Mayson Drake. Drake had been one of Wheaton's most outspoken critics at the time of Weber's release. And surprisingly, Drake made time in her busy schedule to talk to Lois. Lois suspected that Sachs had called ahead to pave the way for her.

"You can't just assume that when a judge makes a decision the DA's office and the Daily Planet disagrees with that the judge in question has been suborned," Drake warned when Lois asked about Wheaton's decision and raised the possibility of Morrow having tampered with the appeals process.

"Before I left to cover a story in Africa, I was looking into some of the other cases where Tom Morrow got acquittals when it should have been a slam dunk for the DA's office."

Drake gave her a sharp look and Lois knew that Drake knew she was right about Morrow.

Drake sighed. "There's a **lot** of suspicion surrounding Morrow and he should be investigated but Clemmons doesn't seem to see it that way."

Matt Clemmons was New Troy's District Attorney. Lois recalled comments from people who followed the 'court scene' in Metropolis. According to them, while Clemmons wasn't a great lawyer, he _was_ an extremely savvy politician with an eye on higher offices. And high profile convictions against organized crime should have been Clemmons' ticket to name recognition in the next election. But the cases lost to Morrow had been exactly the cases Clemmons needed to have won.

Lois knew something else as well. "I think you'll find that Clemmons went to school with Morrow." Lois was gratified at the sudden look of comprehension on Drake's face.

-o-o-o-

Clemmons' possible - make that probable – past relationship with Weber's attorney didn't explain why Morrow had worked so hard on getting the misogynistic sociopath released.

Besides, attorneys like Morrow cost money – lots of money. Money that someone like Weber wouldn't have wanted to spend for services from someone like Morrow. And in a case like this Morrow would have wanted a huge retainer. People like Weber thought they were above the system, that they didn't need the assistance of 'slaves of the system' like Morrow. People like Weber thought they were smarter than everyone else and were more likely to fire their lawyer, even kill them if the opportunity arose, than listen to them. Therefore someone Weber respected enough to obey had given Weber orders to shut up and let Morrow do the talking on the appeal.

The question was: who? Who wanted Weber out murdering innocent mothers and babies and who had both the money and the clout to make both Morrow and Weber listen and obey?

Not Luthor. As tempting as it might be to blame the billionaire for all of Metropolis's troubles, there was no real evidence that Luthor was the infamous 'Boss' and there was no hint that any of Luthor's subsidiaries would benefit from the fire-bombing of a women's clinic in that part of town. Besides, had Luthor or 'the Boss' been involved, the clinic would have been burned when the building was empty. Multiple deaths would make the incident the focus of federal **and** local investigations plus public sentiment would end up making the location into a memorial.

Intergang? As with Luthor, they would have everything to lose and little to gain by the mass murder of women and babies. Besides, there was no evidence they'd made any inroads into Metropolis.

But if not one of the big players of organized crime, then who? Someone with access to money, no doubt. An industrialist with extremist tendencies, maybe. There were more than a few of those in the country, men who thought that laws and regulations were for lesser beings because the pursuit of money and power trumped everything else. Owners of companies that railed against the high price of education then brought in highly trained employees from overseas because the USA didn't produce what they needed – thanks in part to an underfunded education system.

Jimmy's research hadn't given her any leads. Whoever had paid Morrow's retainer hid their tracks well.

"Penny for your thoughts." Cat's voice brought Lois out of her ruminations. "You've been staring at that screen for a good fifteen minutes," Cat added.

"What do _you_ do when you're stuck?" Lois asked. She didn't want to admit it but she'd run into a wall.

"Go do something else. Change of perspective," Cat said. "Not that the Metropolis social scene leads to many mysteries that need heavy research…" Cat's voice trailed off and her expression turned thoughtful.

"You just thought of an angle," Lois stated.

"Maybe. What are the usual reasons for an arson fire?"

"Insurance fraud, extortion, murder, cover up a previous crime," Lois listed.

"Well, if we take out insurance fraud and extortion, then that leaves murder and covering up a previous crime. So what was the crime being covered up? Or if it was murder who was the actual target?"

"You think Weber and his bunch didn't do it?"

"I didn't say that. But they make awfully convincing scapegoats if they didn't."

Lois shook her head. "Everything points to them."

"Does it? The Disciples of Light have never targeted mothers and babies before. It was always the doctors and the buildings. So why would they kill the very people they claim they're trying to protect?"

"Because they're psychopaths that just want an excuse to keep women barefoot and pregnant and in sexual bondage," Lois countered hotly. Cat's eyes went wide at her outburst and Lois abruptly realized how demented she sounded.

"That's a pretty serious knee jerk reaction," Cat said after a moment. "Want to tell me about it?"

"No."

Cat nodded to the open door of Perry's office. Lois followed her gaze to see Perry scowling at her.

"I figure you can talk to me or you can talk to Perry, or a shrink."

Lois snorted. "I don't need a shrink."

"I've heard that the people who protest the most loudly about not needing one are the one's that need help the most," Cat stated.

"It's personal," Lois stated after a long moment.

"Not if it affects your work," Cat stated.

Lois glared at her. "I think I liked you better when you were an empty-headed bimbo."

Cat chuckled. "See how well my disguise works. I have _never_ been empty-headed."

-o-o-o-

"So, want to tell me about it?" Cat asked after they'd eaten. She'd brought pizza, salad, and soda over to Lois's apartment after Lois had gotten off work and to Lois's surprise Cat had arrived dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans instead one of her usual psychedelic skin-tight dresses.

"You assume there's something to tell."

"I _know_ there's something to tell and I'm guessing it's more than just that it was your doctor who got killed along with all the moms and babies. And I don't think it's hormones making you sensitive all of a sudden."

"It _could_ be hormones," Lois countered. "And I'm not completely insensitive, you know."

Cat's wry grin told Lois that the other woman didn't believe her but it wasn't worth arguing about.

"To tell the truth, the thing with the Smart Kids spooked me a little. The people who should have been taking care of them, who should have been looking out after their best interests, made sure they were safe, didn't. It hit a little close to home for me. And how many kids are out there with even _less_ protection than they had. How many kids are out there being exploited in even worse ways?"

"I can't argue with you there. As journalists all we can do is present the facts and ask the hard questions that people don't want to think about, like who is ultimately responsible for a child's well-being when the parents or caregivers have ideas on what constitutes well-being that are at odds with what the law says and the rest of society believes. And who is responsible when the parents refuse to be responsible?"

"Exactly."

"But there's more," Cat observed.

"Yeah," Lois admitted slowly. "I know the arguments for and against allowing abortion and I agree that abortion is a lousy method of birth control. But I'm always left asking where do the mother's rights come in if the child isn't going to survive, or if the mother won't, or if the child is conceived due to rape? We have laws against cruel and unusual punishment but isn't it cruel and unusual punishment for force a woman who did not ask to be impregnated to relive that trauma every waking moment because she isn't allowed to 'get rid of' the public evidence of her attack? And then to add insult to injury, depending on the jurisdiction she may end up paying the medical expenses, not to mention the public humiliation, the effects on her relationships…"

"Lois, were you…?" Cat asked gently.

"Was I raped?" Lois completed for her. "No."

"But…" Cat prompted.

"Remember the Margot Stratton case?" Lois asked.

To Lois's surprise Cat nodded. It hadn't exactly been headline news at the time in Metropolis, much less Gotham where Cat was originally from.

"Kid raped and impregnated by her extremist stepdad and allowed to die in childbirth while his buddies looked on because they claimed to abhor medical intervention in 'God's will'," Cat said. "That was one of the cases we looked at in my 'Ethics and Society' class way back when."

"She was a classmate of mine," Lois said. "She was a good kid who didn't deserve any of the stuff that happened to her. And the whole 'God's will' and 'no medical intervention' was complete bunkum because he certainly didn't turn down medical intervention when he was diagnosed with cancer a year later. No, he was trying to cover up that he'd raped a twelve year-old girl he was supposed to be caring for and protecting and was using his alleged religious beliefs to get away with murder. Luckily Metropolis has some strict rules on when the Medical Examiner gets involved. The ME was able to prove her stepdad was the father of her baby and therefore guilty of statutory rape if nothing else. At least that put him in prison for a while. But his buddies in the Disciples of Light got of scot free."

"They were starting to make news then," Cat stated. "A lot of people bought into their BS."

"A lot of people still are. The whole 'a woman is precious and should be honored and protected' is _so_ seductive, so long as you don't look at their underlying assumptions and the logical outcomes of those assumptions."

"You would have liked my Ethics and Society class," Cat commented. "The women argued that if the world was really like what the Disciples of Light seemed to assume it was, that men couldn't and shouldn't be held responsible for attacking women because human females of any age were, by their nature, too wanton and seductive to be resisted, then, instead of being locked away or covered up, all women should be trained in self-defense and allowed to carry weapons and all rapists should summarily be surgically castrated. Then, in a couple generations we might end up with men who actually have enough self-restraint to be allowed out in public without leashes.

"Luckily most of the world isn't actually like that and the vast majority of men can be trusted not to attack women and girls even off-leash.

"Of course," Cat continued, "we still have the mystery of why the Disciples of Light would attack a clinic full of women and babies they claim to want to protect, assuming it _was_ them, and if it _wasn't_ them, who did do it? And, who arranged for Weber to get out of prison so he could either plan the crime or be framed for it."

"You really think Weber and his bunch of fanatics might be innocent?"

"Innocent isn't a word I'd ever use for that bunch, but if I were going to frame somebody for a crime against a women's clinic, they'd be at the top of my list."

-o-o-o-

A break in the case came two days later when it was revealed that the fingerprints of one of Weber's lieutenants, a Daniel Simons, was found inside the casing of what was left of the incendiary device that started the fire that destroyed the clinic and took so many innocent lives. He had a record of violence against women and was considered a 'person of interest' in more than one rape in the greater Metropolis area. The Feds were labeling it a hate crime.

But now Lois wasn't so sure. Cat identified one of the victims as being a former Price House manager from Philadelphia. A woman who had been seen in the company of Bill Church, Jr. until her abrupt departure from Price House several months before. Rumor had it that she had been pregnant with Junior's baby and he'd wanted nothing to do with it.

"Is there a link between Church or Price House and either Weber or Simons?" Lois asked Cat.

Cat was back in less than forty-five minutes. "My sources tell me that Junior and Tom Morrow go golfing together at least once a week. But, they also say this isn't the first time Junior's had a little indiscretion on the way. The other times he either paid for the abortion or just paid the women off after making them agree to not go after him for paternity."

"Maybe this one didn't want to get paid off?" Lois suggested.

"Maybe," Cat admitted.

"Um, ladies, is there something I need to know here?" Perry asked. Lois hadn't realized he'd been standing close enough to hear them.

"We may have something on the clinic fire…" Lois started.

"We?" Perry repeated. "As in Lois Lane and Cat Grant working together? As in Lois Lane has been replaced by a pod person because the _real_ Lois Lane would never collaborate with _anyone_, much less Cat Grant?"

"I'm not that bad," Lois protested.

"Honey, we had one intern threaten to jump off the building after a day of trying to 'help' you," Perry came back.

Lois chose not to respond to Perry's comment. She hadn't been mean to the young man in question – she _knew_ she hadn't been mean to him – but he had been so preternaturally cheerful and helpful that it had brought out all her negative instincts. It wasn't something she was especially proud of but it was in the past and all she could do now was to promise to not do it again.

"Cat came up with an angle that looks promising," Lois said.

"Promising?" Cat echoed.

"Okay, more than just promising," Lois conceded.

"Go on."

"What if the crime was just meant to look like one of Weber's abortion clinic bombings but was really meant to murder a specific person they knew would be in the clinic at that time?" Cat explained.

"Who?"

"Bill Church Junior's pregnant ex-girlfriend."

"You know Bill Senior and I go way back, don't you?" Perry asked. "I used to bounce Bill Junior on my knee when he was a baby."

"You think we should stop?" Cat asked.

"Hell, no," Perry responded. "If the Churches are involved in that atrocity, nail their hides to the wall. But make sure _our_ behinds aren't hanging in the wind while you do it."

-o-o-o-

Bill Junior turned state's evidence against Weber and his followers in trade for dropping the first-degree murder charges against him. Once the FBI and MPD started looking, all the evidence pointed to Bill Junior being the money behind the Disciples of Light, now officially designated a terrorist group.

The investigation by Lane and Grant led to discovering a correlation between Price House and Intergang. A strong enough correlation to convince Clemmons and Drake to initiate a criminal investigation into the Church discount shopping/real estate empire and its possible links to organized crime. Like dominos it all started tumbling down.

And Perry hadn't yet ordered her to only cover safe subjects in safe venues. Yet.


	5. Chapter 5

It was like a dream, or a nightmare. Lois hadn't decided which but remembering _almost_ events that didn't quite match up with reality as she was living it had both upsides and downsides.

This morning was an example. She remembered Perry wincing at the morning's excruciatingly bad coffee. "Dishwater! How's a newspaper supposed to run without a decent cup of Java?"

Cat's cheery response of: "Anyone for herbal tea? Does wonders for the complexion." But this time, instead of a cutting remark aimed at Lois, Cat handed her a mug of something sweet and minty. "My sister swears by this," Cat murmured before sauntering off.

Perry got down to business. "Eduardo, the dockworker strike."

Eduardo grimaced. "Negotiations have broken down again. I'm interviewing the union _and_ management reps... separately."

"Good idea," Perry said before checking his list.

_Before_, that had been Clark's story. He'd been good at getting people to open up to him, building consensus between parties that thought they had nothing in common.

"Lois, about that article you wrote on the fruit fly infestation - could you maybe, if it isn't too much trouble, give it another go? And this time, put some zing into it!"

After all the hoopla of breaking open the relationship between the Church empire, religious terrorism and Intergang, Perry had started assigning her to 'safe' stories. She hated it. She pasted a fake smile on her face.

"Happy to, Chief. It's such an..." here she stretched and yawned "...exhilarating subject matter."

Jimmy spoke up. "Here's what I don't understand. If this malathion spray is so safe, how come they tell you to put your pets inside when they're using it?"

"Precautionary measure," Perry answered.

Perry was right in more ways than one. Her antipathy for the subject matter showed in her writing and she knew she was better than that. Plus Jimmy's question on safety gave her an idea on a better angle on the story. If the stuff they were spraying was so safe, why so many precautions?

Perry went on. "I suppose we should lead with the latest counter-revolution in Russia."

"I believe it's counter, counter-revolution," someone said.

"Who can keep track..." Perry was interrupted by the arrival of hordes of people bringing in cameras, lighting equipment, even a models' runway. "What the Sam Hill's going on?" he demanded.

"Chief, you remember," Cat said. "Today's the day they're using the newsroom as a backdrop to introduce that new fragrance... 'Exclusive.' Marketing set it up."

Perry scowled. "Marketing... no, I don't remember."

"It's been on for months," Cat reminded him. "Look, there's Elle Taylor, and... Rachel Roberts and April Stephens! I have to get an interview..."

At Perry's nod, Cat was out the door, waving down the world famous models.

_This is where it started, where my life as I knew it ended_.

"Lois hon', are you okay?" Perry asked.

Lois looked up to see Perry leaning over her, his face creased with worry.

"I just have a very bad feeling about this," Lois admitted. "Like I've been here before and it ended really badly."

"They're only going to be here a few hours," Perry stated.

"A lot can happen in a few hours."

"You can file your story from home if you want," Perry offered a little too gently.

"I'm not sick, Perry. It's just… something stinks about this."

Jimmy was staring at the girls as they filed in, photographers flitting around them like bees around flowers. "Who cares? You don't think there's any small possibility that a girl like that would go out with a man like me?" he asked. Lois rolled her eyes and Jimmy lost his hopeful expression. "It was just a thought…"

-o-o-o-

The circus was going to take more than a 'few hours' to run its course. The technicians had transformed the newsroom into a veritable perfume/fashion show complete with models and a runway. Everyone who had work they could do away from the newsroom had already left and Lois was seriously considering taking up Perry's offer to let her work from home.

"The beautiful people," Lois commented to Jimmy and Perry as the three of them watched the spectacle. She didn't bother to keep the disgust out of her voice.

Jimmy didn't notice as he stared, awestruck, at the models.

"It's such a sad comment on society," Lois continued. "Dress a certain way, smell a certain way, and the world will love you…"

Jimmy wasn't paying attention. He was mesmerized by the girls.

Lois turned to Perry. "I'm heading out. I promise I'll give you an article on fruit flies that'll knock your socks off…"

She was waiting for the elevator when the doors slid open to reveal a blonde woman in a peasant style blouse, and long skirt. A wide-brimmed hat hid her face but it was what was in her hands that caught Lois's attention – a cobalt blue atomizer bottle. The foul potion she'd been sprayed with _before_ had been in a cobalt blue atomizer in the hands of a woman wearing a peasant blouse and a wide-brimmed hat.

Lois grabbed the bottle before the woman could spray her with it and sniffed it. It was the same stink as before. "What do you call it, Miss…"

"I call it 'Revenge'," the woman said.

"Smells like eau de sweatsocks. I bet you'll be charging 300 dollars an ounce, too."

"One can't put a price on true love," the woman said, reaching for the bottle.

"True Love? Then why call it Revenge?" Lois asked sweetly, just before spraying the woman in the face with the concoction.

The woman screamed like she'd been sprayed with acid. She clawed at Lois to get back the bottle.

"Lois?" Perry asked worriedly.

"I told her not to spray me and she tried anyway," Lois lied. "So I sprayed _her_ with it. Somehow I don't think it's perfume in that bottle."

The other woman had stopped screaming. Aside from the stink there was no evidence she'd actually been harmed. Lois hadn't aimed for her eyes. "Give me back my property before I call the police," the woman demanded.

Lois handed the atomizer to Perry. "Maybe we should have Star Labs check it out. And I'm perfectly willing to file attempted assault charges against her. Trying to spray a pregnant woman with whatever nastiness is in that bottle. I mean, it can't possibly be safe if the person who knows what's in it screams bloody murder when it gets on her."

The commotion by the elevator had caught the attention of the people working the show. The noise level in the newsroom had gone down to a level where you could almost hear the proverbial pin drop. Cat had come to standing with Perry and grabbed the hat away from the woman.

"Miranda," one of the show people said with a disdainful sniff. His name tag identified him as 'Mischa'. Lois thought that was the name of the designer of the perfume being introduced.

"You know her?" Perry asked him.

"She's a local perfumer. Dabbles in 'interesting' scents." He sniffed the air around Miranda. "Animal based. Still trying to use pheromones for the bottom note, luv?"

Miranda just glared at him.

-o-o-o-

Lois sagged against the doorframe of her apartment door. It had been a long several days.

Research had turned up the fact that Miranda had been funded by Luthor Labs and that her funding had been cancelled. Luthor Labs management refused to comment on what she'd been working on for them and why her funding had been cancelled. It stank – in more ways than just the perfume.

Star Labs took the sample and Doctor Friedman's initial analysis of 'Revenge' was that it was laced with modified human pheromones. The alterations were such that, for susceptible persons who were already attracted to someone, their sexual inhibitions went out the window for forty-eight hours or so. Friedman had been so alarmed by his analysis that he sent a copy of his report to the FDA. Luckily the poison seemed to have no effect unless it came into direct contact with skin – just smelling it didn't activate it.

Had that been what happened _before?_ Had she and her Clark been ignoring their mutual attraction until Miranda's potion lowered their inhibitions to the point that they acted on them? And what of _her_ Clark? Was he wondering what had happened to her? Was he looking for her without having any idea where she was? Lois had no way of knowing.

And the Clark here? The one she'd mistakenly accused of taking advantage of her? She had spotted him with Linda King but hadn't seen his byline at the Star. She didn't know if he had seen her at the mayor's press conference the day she saw him. If he had he hadn't shown any indication he had recognized her.

Then Miranda's body was found in Hob's Bay. The ME labeled the death as suspicious.

Lois was reasonably certain Miranda hadn't ended up dead _before_.

-o-o-o-

Weeks passed. Any hope Lois had that whatever had sent her here in the first place would send her home when the time of Miranda's attack passed, faded into near nothingness. Her co-workers were being unusually charitable in not mentioning her growing baby bulge.

One of Lois's sources dropped her a note that Congressman Ian Harrington, chairman of the House Defense Committee, had been seen with people who had with connections in some very questionable places but they gave her no names. The source also hinted there might be irregularities with Harrington's campaign finances.

Lois called Cat over to her desk. "Tell me about Congressman Harrington."

"He's the most notoriously sexy man in Washington," the society columnist reported with a smirk.

"Give me something real, not unsubstantiated rumors."

"But those are the best kind." Cat grinned at her.

Lois didn't laugh.

Cat frowned. "You're serious."

"As a heart attack," Lois told the older woman. "I got a tip that concerns him about possible financial irregularities and some of the people he's been seen with recently."

"Well, Harrington's been in Metropolis for the past ten days or so," Cat said. "Something about getting to know the faces behind the big defense contractors his committee deals with."

"He came to have drinks with Lex Luthor, Bruce Wayne, and maybe Oliver Queen," Lois translated.

"Wayne is in Paris and Queen is in Singapore," Cat told her. "But Harrington did have dinner with Luthor day before yesterday. Aside from that he's been doing the usual night scene – gorgeous blonde one night, gorgeous brunette the next... but he's been calling it a night fairly early for him _and_ not going straight back to his hotel room."

"Meeting somebody?" Lois suggested.

"If he is, he doesn't want anybody to know about it. And he's enough of a celebrity he's not likely to be meeting a hooker unless it's for something way kinkier than the gorgeous blonde or brunette are comfortable with," Cat said. "And as far as I know, he's not into that scene."

"Maybe we should figure out who he _is_ meeting," Lois suggested.

"We?" Cat repeated a trifle suspiciously.

"Aren't you even a little curious as to who he's meeting that he doesn't want people to know about?"

"With a name like 'Cat', what do you think?"

-o-o-o-

If Harrington noticed he been followed when leaving the haut bar he'd taken his latest conquest to, he showed no evidence of it. He drove his rental car straight to the Luxor Hotel parking garage and then crossed the street to the Wannamaker Building, a genteelly aging mid-rise office building.

"Kind of late for a run of the mill business meeting," Lois commented as she and Cat hurried to follow him.

"And I don't know anybody running a sex business out of the Wannamaker," Cat said. "The Luxor's a much better place for that."

Lois wasn't sure if Cat was joking or not.

Harrington was met in the lobby by two men. One was short and stocky with grizzled hair, the other an obvious muscleman. There was no one at the lobby security desk. Lois wondered if the time for the meeting had been deliberately set to coincide with the guard's break.

Lois had her camera out and snapped pictures of the three through the lobby door before the men disappeared into an elevator.

"Nope, not sex," Cat muttered as they entered the lobby. "Harrington isn't into guys... as far as anyone will admit."

The indicator above the elevator the men had taken stopped at the twelfth floor. A quick check of the building directory revealed four tenants listed for that floor. Two law firms, an engineering firm, and something called 'Apocalypse Consulting'. Lois was willing to bet real money that Harrington et al weren't meeting a lawyer or engineer at this time of night.

-o-o-o-

"So, who are these two jokers with Harrington?" Perry asked as he looked over Lois's photos the next morning.

"We don't know," Jimmy answered for Lois. "I'm running our Identafile program looking for a match."

"Any idea who they were meeting?"

"My bet's on Apocalypse Consulting," Lois said. "The two law firms both specialize in family law and the engineering firm specializes in 'erosion mitigation'. They've all been at their current addresses for years and all have decent reputations in their fields. Apocalypse Consulting on the other hand… No bank accounts or financial transactions that we can trace. They moved in a couple months ago. Paid off a five year lease on the offices _in advance, in cash._"

"That's not a crime," Perry noted.

"But it _is_ suspicious."

"You know, that office is on the side of the building that overlooks the Luxor…" Cat said.

"What are you suggesting?" Perry asked suspiciously.

"A couple days in the Honeymoon Suite would be ideal…" Cat stated with a grin.

"Now, hold on a minute. You're talking a major surveillance operation here and we don't even know if there's something to surveil."

"Perry, we know something's up, otherwise Harrington wouldn't be hiding it," Lois stated.

"And it doesn't have to be the Honeymoon Suite," Cat added. "The room below would probably work as well and would be less suspicious. And I agree with Lois, Harrington's up to something. And since he's chairman of the House Defense Committee, we could be looking at something with national or even international ramifications."

"Maybe I should contact my source, _the_ source, just to see if there's anything to this, before we get in too deep," Perry said after a moment.

Jimmy's eyes went wide. "You don't mean...?"

Perry cut him off with a finger to his lips. "Don't even say that name out loud." He turned to Lois. "Okay, you ladies have got three nights."

Lois was ready to protest that it was _her_ story, but she also remembered that it was Cat who had confirmed what Lois's source had said about Harrington.

Cat grinned. "We are going to have so much fun," she announced with obvious glee.

"Doing 'round the clock surveillance?" Lois asked.

"Don't be such a fuddy duddy," Cat came back with a laugh.

-o-o-o-

Spending the day with Cat hadn't been as onerous as Lois had feared. Cat was friends with the Luxor's head chef and he arranged for Cat and Lois to sample some of the 'healthy options' seasonal lunch menu items he was developing. Cat had also brought her manicure kit and had cheerfully given Lois a professional quality manicure as well as a facial. Lois hadn't had a day of pampering since… she honestly couldn't remember when. College, maybe.

"Take care of your body," Cat said. "It's the only one you have."

"I take care of myself," Lois protested.

"You forget to eat. You're addicted to caffeine and chocolate… Need I go on?"

"I've cut out the caffeine and cut down on the chocolate," Lois protested. "I never did drink much, so cutting that out wasn't much of a loss."

Lights came on in the office they were watching. Lois grabbed her binoculars, flipped on the recorder and turned up the sound.

The three men walked in. As Lois watched, Harrington handed a manila envelope to the stocky man.

"That's the last of the system specs," Harrington said. His voice was clear on the speaker. The new directional mike Jimmy had brought them was a technological wonder. "I'll have the information on the testing for you tomorrow. Dates, procedures, the whole thing," Harrington continued.

"Good. What about a new vote?" the stocky man asked.

"I can't initiate a re-vote until after the test results are analyzed and the plan rejected," Harrington said. He sounded exasperated. "Hopefully..."

"'Hopefully' isn't good enough," the stocky man interrupted. "That's why I bought insurance: _you_.

"You don't own me, Roarke," Harrington warned.

_Now we have a name to the face, Lois thought_.

Roarke pushed Harrington against the wall, grabbing his collar. "I own you lock, stock, and re-election fund, Mr. Chairman. Never forget that," he warned.

The muscleman dragged Roarke back from Harrington who straightened up and pulled himself together.

"I only meant..." Harrington said shakily, "are you sure you can pull this off?"

"I guarantee it."

"Because if you don't, what happens to me?"

"Pray you never find out."

"Lois, what would you say if I said that I don't have a clue what they're talking about, but that, whatever it is, it's really big," Cat said. "Congressmen don't sell out for less than 'big.' But this is _really_ big."

"I'd say... you're absolutely right."

-o-o-o-

In the bullpen conference room the next morning, Lois ran the recording for Perry and Jimmy. By the time she turned it off they looked as mystified as she already felt.

She started ticking off her mental list. "So, who's Roarke? What 'system' are they talking about? And what 'test?'"

"And the 'vote'," Cat added. "Don't forget the 'vote.' We need to find out about every vote taken by Harrington's committee for the past..."

"Six months?" Jimmy suggested with a grin. "Already on it."

Jimmy was back in less than an hour. "I ran Roarke, name _and_ picture through every program the Daily Planet has access to... the man's a ghost."

Cat shook her head. "No, I've seen his face somewhere..."

Perry walked up to them and dropped a photo of Roarke on the conference room table. The photo showed Roarke wearing a dinner jacket and looking very dapper. "Thaddeus Roarke. International arms dealer, electronic weapons system analyst, entrepreneur, and general bad boy. Last known base of operations: Beirut."

"Where'd you..." Jimmy started.

"Sources, boys and girls, sources. The life blood of journalism," Perry intoned.

Cat looked the photo over then checked the back. " 'People Magazine.' I _knew_ I'd seen him before."

"Arms dealer, House Defense Committee. Makes sense," Lois said.

Perry's expression turned serious. "Now team, we should talk about this. A scoop's a scoop, but if we're into something that impacts on national security, we have to bring in the Federales."

"Now?" Lois squeaked.

"No. When the time's right," Perry said. "So far we have more questions than answers. Let's hear some theories."

"Okay. The Defense Department is about to test some new weapons system and Roarke wants to know about it," Jimmy suggested.

"So he bribes Harrington to slip him the info?" Lois said.

"But, Harrington is also afraid of Roarke," Cat said. "Or maybe afraid of what Roarke will do once he has the information. Plus, Harrington's not a little fish. He didn't get to be chairman of the House Defense Committee by being a push-over. Roarke has to have something on him more than just re-election finances."

"Cat, look into it," Perry ordered. "Get in touch with Bob at our Washington Bureau, see what he can dig up on Harrington and the other members of that committee. Jimmy, next time Roarke shows..."

"Got him."

"Lois, Cat, you've got two more days. Make the most of them."

-o-o-o-

"It's hard to make the most of two days at the Luxor when you can't use the recording equipment for taping more interesting things and you can't invite anybody up to share," Cat complained.

Lois wasn't sure she was joking or not.

Across the way, Roarke's nameless associate was filing papers in a cabinet. His jacket was hanging on a coat tree in the corner. Without the jacket it was even more obvious than it had been before that he was big and muscular. He was also armed. As she watched, Muscleman seemed to hear something. He closed the file drawer, locked it, and dropped the keys into the pocket of that jacket hanging on the coat tree.

Roarke and Harrington walked in and Lois turned up the sound on the tape monitor.

"... no possible way the test will be postponed?" Roarke was asking.

Harrington shook his head. "Weather's clear. Naval monitoring ships are en route. Dawn, day after tomorrow. It's set."

"Good. And after the test fails, we'll get _my_ system approved and installed. How soon before you can vote again?"

"There'll be delays, of course. Analysis of test results, modification proposals..."

"No."

"We have to go through the process, Thaddeus," Harrington explained.

"After what happens at that test, no one will be interested in 'modification proposals,' " Roarke promised.

"What exactly _will_ happen?"

Roarke smiled – a cold bitter smile. "Why don't I show you? We had a video made from our computer model. Bart, get the lights and the shutters."

Muscleman – now identified as 'Bart' – turned off the light then closed shutters over the windows.

"Damn," Cat muttered as the sounds coming through the tape monitor muffled into white noise. The shutters were sound-proofed, too.

Twenty minutes Bart opened the shutters. Roarke and Harrington were gone. Then Bart left, leaving his jacket behind.

The printer on the hotel desk clattered on. Cat went over to check it. "Finally. Voting records of the House Defense Committee."

Lois stared at the darkened window of Apocalypse Consulting. It was tempting to just go over there and check it out while Roarke and Bart were busy doing other things. She came to a decision. "I'm going down to the lobby for a few minutes. I... need something from the drug store."

"No, you don't," Cat stated. "Perry warned me you'd try to sneak off and do something dangerous without backup."

"He said that?" Lois couldn't decide if she should be mad at Perry or not for warning Cat.

Then, to Lois's surprise, the other woman handed her two walky-talkies. "Jimmy's already over there waiting to tail Roarke. Take him with you as a look-out."

-o-o-o-

Having Jimmy as a look-out had been a good idea. He'd made quick work of the office door lock and gave her plenty of warning when Roarke and Bart headed back upstairs.

Now she, Perry, Jimmy, and Cat were looking over the photos she'd taken of the documents in the locked cabinet. Mostly sales orders for guns and other weapons to places the U.S. government would object to if it knew.

"Does Harrington have any clue about Roarke's other business dealings? I mean, the little bit here should be enough for the NSA to lock him up and throw away the key," Lois said.

"Lois, you know as well as anybody that his kind of scum has a 'get out of jail free' card because the Federales don't want to burn an asset they might want to use," Perry said. "For them he's a necessary evil."

Cat picked up one sheet showing the cover of a file folder. "Tsunami. Funny, nearly everything else is labeled by date. This one has a code-name."

"I was about to copy that file when Roarke and Bart started back to the office," Lois explained.

"A tsumani's a giant wave. Like a tidal wave," Jimmy said.

"Wave?" Perry asked, looking up from the copies he was reading over. "I've got a wave here, too." He held up one sheet: 'Shock Wave / Preliminary Analysis.'

"Wait a minute, 'Shock Wave'..." Jimmy grabbed a stack of printed sheets from the table and shuffled through them. "Harrington's committee voted on something called Project Shock Wave not too long... here it is! 'Appropriation approval for system test installation.'"

Lois read over Jimmy's shoulder. "This vote was taken five weeks ago. Passed eight to zero, with one abstention… Congressman Ian Harrington. But nothing about what it is. But this has to be what they were talking about. Roarke wanted Harrington to have the vote reversed."

"And his own system approved instead. Whatever that means," Perry added.

"But what's 'Shock Wave'?" Cat asked. She looked over to Jimmy.

"After Lois was done, I followed Roarke and Bart to Pier 31. They went into a warehouse and they were still there this morning when I left to come back here. Warehouse leased to... Apocalypse Consulting." He handed Lois his notes.

"Did you look inside?" Lois asked.

"No windows."

"We're spinning our wheels. Some test, monitored by Naval units, is taking place tomorrow at dawn, and Roarke is planning on sabotaging it." Lois stated. She hated puzzles with pieces missing.

"I think it's time," Perry said solemnly. "Time to go to the top. To the man who always knows what's going on. The man who's never let me down."

"You don't mean...?" Jimmy said, obviously awed.

Perry nodded. "I do mean. Sore Throat."

-o-o-o-

It hadn't taken Perry very long to arrange a meeting with his contact. To Lois's surprise, they were meeting in an underground garage not far from the Planet.

"Why here?" Cat complained. "It's freezing."

Perry shrugged. "Sore Throat's choice."

Lois was surprised that she wasn't feeling the cold. She'd heard that pregnant women had higher metabolisms. She assumed that was the case here – but she hadn't been noticing heat as much either.

"You should dress more warmly, Miss Grant. This _is_ the cold and flu season," a male voice said from behind them. She turned to see a portly middle-aged man wearing a long overcoat and sunglasses. It was hard to make out more – he was staying in the shadows.

He coughed and sneezed as he pulled a tissue from his pocket. "Allergies. They're killing me."

"What can you tell us about Project Shock Wave?" Perry started.

There was a long pause, then: "Where did you hear that name?"

"We have reason to believe Thaddeus Roarke is working with Congressman Ian Harrington to sabotage Project Shock Wave," Lois said. "It's due to be tested..."

"At dawn – tomorrow," Sore Throat completed for her. "I know all about it. Project Shock Wave: experimental coastal defense network. A couple of years ago, the Navy began lobbying for their own version of a Star Wars system. Several proposals were made, the Navy picked Shock Wave. Roarke's system was runner-up."

"Who's behind Shock Wave?" Perry asked.

"Luthor Technologies."

"Why was Shock Wave picked?" Lois asked.

"More sophisticated. It's designed to automatically analyze any foreign object within sensor range and calibrate an appropriate response."

"What kind of response?" Lois asked.

"Think of it as a sonic 'curtain.' Sonic vibrations providing an impenetrable barrier that would disable whatever tried to pass. Roarke had millions tied up in his own system. I'm not surprised he's taking steps."

"Mr... Throat, what would you suggest we do?" Cat asked.

"You could take whatever evidence you have to the Navy, but they'd probably charge _you_ with espionage. This test is top secret." He paused as if thinking. "You could publish your theories, force the Navy to cancel the test, and face government censure and a slew of lawsuits. Or, you could do what I intend to do."

"What's that?" Cat asked.

"Get out of town." He cleared his throat, again. "I need a drier climate."

Lois felt a growing bubble of fury. "That's _it_? _That's_ your advice? The great Sore Throat has spoken?"

Despite the sunglasses and shadows, he managed to look affronted. "What'd you expect to hear? 'Follow the money?' I never understood that." He turned to leave then paused. "Did I mention that Roarke was completely insane, with maniacal delusions of grandeur?"

"No," Cat said. She sounded as peeved as Lois felt.

"Well, he is."

-o-o-o-

"Do we have enough to publish? We take everything we've got, video, audio, research, and put it in the afternoon edition," Lois said once they were back in Perry's office. "I mean, Roarke scares me. If half of what we've heard is true... he's got to be stopped."

Jimmy ran into the office without knocking. "It just came over LNN. The Luxor's been bombed. From the pictures, it looks like the device was planted in the Honeymoon Suite."

"Our room was one floor down," Lois said. "Do you think Roarke knows we're on to him?"

"He was on to _someone_," Jimmy said. "The Honeymoon Suite was rented out to the Star's star reporter, Linda King."

"Could we be so lucky that she was there when it happened?" Lois asked. At Perry's frown, she went on to explain. "Linda and I go way back. She's one of those who would stoop to anything for the scoop. And I do mean _anything_."

"Well, she and some guy from the Star did check in to the Luxor about two hours after you guys did." Jimmy said. "It's possible it was a coincidence."

"It's possible the Star has a mole in our midst," Lois groused.

"Pity we can't actually tie Roarke to the bombing," Cat said. "And if Roarke _was_ behind it, he'll have cleared out this office so all we have is what we brought back here. Everything we left in the room is gone."

"Get started writing up the story on Harrington and Roarke," Perry ordered. "In the meantime, I'll see what I can do on postponing the test," Perry said.

It was well after dark by the time Perry came out of his office. "I called everyone I know in Washington. No one's interested. And, as far as the Navy's concerned, there _is_ no test."

"We have to do something," Lois grumbled. She picked up her phone and dialed a number she remembered from _before_. "Hello. This is Lois Lane of the Daily Planet. I'd like to speak to Lex Luthor… Yes, it is important. Tell him it relates to Thaddeus Roarke and Shock Wave."

Half an hour later Lex Luthor walked into the newsroom. He was accompanied by a well built young man with dark hair and glasses – Clark Kent.

Luthor nodded politely, his eyes only briefly lighting on Lois's pregnant belly. "Perry, Ms. Lane, Cat..." He glanced at Jimmy, mentally dismissing him. "... and... whoever, Luthor Technologies has approximately half a billion dollars in research and development tied up in a project code-named Shock Wave. Shock Wave, even the name, is top secret. Yet, Ms. Lane, you call on a line that only my closest business associates know to tell me you not only know of the project, but suspect that Thaddeus Roarke, a man with whom I've had previous unsatisfactory dealings, is intent on sabotaging the impending test. Then I get a call from Mister Kent here telling me the same thing." He looked around the room. "Under the circumstances I might have elected to stay home and watch reruns of Flipper on the all night cable channel. Instead, I decided to come here. What is going on?"

"We've had Roarke and Congressman Ian Harrington under surveillance," Lois began after Perry nodded his permission – not that she needed it. "Roarke is positive your system will fail its test, leaving the door open for _his_ system to be adopted instead."

"Roarke and Harrington?" Luthor repeated. "I should have known. You say Roarke is positive?"

Kent nodded agreement, confirming Lois's suspicion that the 'boyfriend' Jimmy had mentioned checking in with King had been Kent.

"That would imply sabotage," Luthor continued. "No one ever described Thaddeus Roarke as an incurable optimist."

"How could your system be sabotaged?" Perry asked.

"So far as I know, it can't."

"But Roarke _is_ a weapons system expert," Kent said. "Besides, Roarke hinted at more than a simple breakdown. Something... bigger."

"So, you and Linda _were_ at the Luxor watching Roarke," Lois stated.

Kent nodded.

"So what are you doing _here_?"

"Linda was in the room when the bomb went off. I… I wasn't there. Then when I called Mister Luthor to warn him about Roarke, I was fired. By Preston Carpenter himself. While Mister Luthor was still on the line."

"What, you were supposed to have died in the room with her?" Lois asked.

"I put the needs of the people above the story," Kent said. "That's not Carpenter's way."

"Luckily, _I_ recognize talent when I see it, so I told Kent to meet me here," Luthor stated a bit smugly for Lois's taste. "But this doesn't help us determine exactly what Roarke has planned."

"One of the files he had was labeled 'Tsunami'," Cat said.

Luthor gave her a puzzled look.

"Tsunami. A giant wave caused by an undersea tremor," Kent explained.

"A shock wave," Jimmy added.

"And Apocalypse Consulting has a warehouse on Pier 31," Lois said. Kent's reaction told Lois that he and Linda hadn't known about the warehouse. Linda hadn't had Roarke followed, or maybe she had and hadn't told Kent about it.

"I'll get on to my people and let them know about the threat," Luthor promised. "Obviously Roarke spotted an exploitable weakness."

"Do you think your people can fix it in time?" Perry asked.

"I hope so," Luthor said.

-o-o-o-

As soon as Luthor left the newsroom, Perry pulled Kent into his office. Five minutes later both men came out and Perry asked her if she would have a problem with Kent joining the Planet.

"My opinion shouldn't matter," she told them. "But, no. No problem. I admit I mistook him for someone else."

"If you're sure…" Perry said. He didn't seem convinced of her sincerity, but then she wasn't entirely convinced either. "Okay then, you two check out that warehouse. But check in with me before doing anything impetuous, like going inside."

"I am sorry about Linda," Lois told Kent a few minutes later as she drove them to Pier 31. She had caught him watching her warily.

"You're not like how she described you," he said after a moment.

"Let me guess. Self-important, ruthless, no conscience, would do anything for a story?"

"Pretty much," Kent admitted.

"So, what was she like, as a partner?"

"Self-important, ruthless, no conscience, would do anything for a story including stealing from her alleged partner."

"Is that why I haven't seen your by-line over there?"

"Senior partner gets the by-line and all the credit," Kent stated.

"Not at the Planet," Lois stated. "Not on Perry White's watch."

He watched her for a long moment. Then: "I want to thank you for not spreading it around town that you thought I'd…"

"After you left that day I realized…"

"Realized what?" Kent prompted when she stopped to collect her thoughts.

"I realized that something had happened to me. Something weird, something unbelievable."

"You discovered you'd been dead for six months?" Kent suggested.

Lois hit the brakes. "How did you know that?" she demanded.

"After what happened, I did some research on you. What I found didn't make a lot of sense," he said. "Lois Lane died almost a year ago, but here you are." He peered out the windshield. "Dawn is in less than half an hour…"

Lois hit the accelerator.

-o-o-o-

They found Harrington tied to a dock railing just outside Apocalypse Consulting's warehouse. The door to the warehouse was open and there was evidence that heavy equipment had been stored there and recently moved.

"It's too late," Harrington kept repeating, staring out to sea. "I never meant for this to happen..."

"What?" Kent demanded as he untied the ropes. "Where's Roarke?"

"I never meant for this to happen," Harrington repeated.

"For what to happen?" Lois insisted.

Across the water Lois could hear faint alarms. The test must have started. Then there was a rumble like a freight train or rolling thunder. It grew louder. Harrington screamed. A towering wall of water was rushing directly toward them.

Kent pushed them away from the water. "Run!" he ordered.

Lois started toward her car, dragging Harrington with her. Then she stopped, realizing Kent wasn't behind them. Harrington kept running.

"Clark!" she screamed. The wall of water was close, too close. There was no escape, either for her or the city.

Then, the wave simply folded into itself, melting away to nothing. The roar had stopped. Small waves lapped gently against the pilings. It was over. Metropolis was safe.

But where was Clark?

Then she spotted him climbing onto the pier. He was soaking wet, hair slicked back, glasses missing. Suddenly all the puzzle pieces from _before_ came together. She knew where Superman was.

* * *

Pheromone My Lovely was written by Deborah Joy Levine.  
Honeymoon in Metropolis was written by Dan Levine.


End file.
